Successful treatment of metastatic bladder pleomorphic giant cell carcinoma with pembrolizumab.

Introduction: Bladder pleomorphic giant cell carcinoma is a rare and aggressive malignancy with a poor prognosis. There are no reports of immune checkpoint inhibitors for bladder pleomorphic giant cell carcinoma to date.

Case Presentation: A 72-year-old man presented with gross hematuria due to multiple bladder cancers.

[A case of huge advanced rectal cancer resected successfully after chemotherapy with mFOLFOX6].

The patient, a 75-year-old woman, who was referred to our hospital in April 2010 because of diarrhea and lower abdominal pain. Abdominal CT scan revealed a large tumor, over 8 cm in diameter within the pelvis, and colonoscopy detected rectal cancer. There was no obvious distant metastasis, although invasion to the uterus and regional lymph node metastasis was suspected.

[Successful reintroduction of mesylate imatinib after pneumonitis in two patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST)].

We report 2 cases of successful reintroduction of mesylate imatinib for gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) after drug-induced pneumonitis. Both of them were women in the fifth decade who had been medicated by mesylate imatinib about for 5 months previously, and had been given a diagnosis of imatinib mesylate-induced pneumonitis. After only cessation of that drug, symptoms and shadows on chest X-ray film improved.

Induction of Parkinson disease-related proteins in motor neurons after transient spinal cord ischemia in rabbits.

The mechanism of spinal cord injury has been thought to be related to the vulnerability of spinal motor neuron cells against ischemia. However, the mechanisms of such vulnerability are not fully understood. We investigated a possible mechanism of neuronal death by immunohistochemical analysis for DJ-1, PINK1, and alpha-Synuclein.

Optimal region-of-interest settings for tissue characterization based on ultrasonic elasticity imaging.

Pathologic changes in arterial walls significantly influence their mechanical properties. We have developed a correlation-based method, the phased tracking method, for measurement of the regional elasticity of the arterial wall. Using this method, elasticity distributions of lipids, blood clots, fibrous tissue and calcified tissue were measured by in-vitro experiments of excised arteries (mean +/- SD: lipids, 89 +/- 47 kPa; blood clots, 131 +/- 56 kPa; fibrous tissue, 1022 +/- 1040 kPa; calcified tissue, 2267 +/- 1228 kPa).

[Ultrasonic measurement of arterial wall for quantitative diagnosis of atherosclerosis--elasticity imaging of arterial wall and atherosclerotic plaque].

To provide useful information for the diagnosis of atherosclerosis in addition to the imaging of morphology using B-mode ultrasonography, we have developed a method, namely, the phased-tracking method, to measure the small change in the thickness of the arterial wall due to the heartbeat. This change in thickness corresponds to strain due to the change in internal pressure, and the elasticity of the arterial wall is obtained by the simultaneous measurement of the change in thickness and pulse pressure. Furthermore, an elasticity image can be classified into tissue components using the reference data obtained by in vitro experiments because the elastic properties are different among the tissue components in the arterial wall.

Predictive value of N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase-V for superficial bladder cancer recurrence.

Purpose: GnT-V is an enzyme that catalyzes beta1-6 branching of N-acetylglucosamine on asparagine (N)-linked oligosaccharides of cell proteins. GnT-V expression has been closely related to malignant potentials in colon cancer, brain cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma. We determined whether GnT-V expression is predictive of superficial bladder cancer recurrence.

Electrophysiological and histopathological characteristics of progressive atrioventricular block accompanied by familial dilated cardiomyopathy caused by a novel mutation of lamin A/C gene.

Unlabelled: Conduction defect caused by lamin A/C gene mutation.

Introduction: Mutations of lamin A/C gene (LMNA) cause dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) with atrioventricular (AV) conduction defect, although the electrophysiological and histological profiles are not fully understood.

Methods And Results: We analyzed a large Japanese family (21 affected and 203 unaffected members) of DCM with AV block.

[Imaging of elasticity distribution in arterial wall by transcutaneous ultrasound and electronic staining].

Knowledge of the physical properties of atherosclerotic plaque is essential when evaluating its vulnerability in a clinical setting. Such knowledge, however, is still difficult to obtain with the various approaches developed to date. This paper describes a novel noninvasive method (phased tracking method) for measuring minute change in thickness of each of the multiple layers of the arterial wall during one cardiac cycle.

Elasticity imaging of atheroma with transcutaneous ultrasound: preliminary study.

Background: Knowledge of the physical properties of atherosclerotic plaque is essential when evaluating its vulnerability in a clinical setting. Such knowledge, however, is still difficult to obtain with the various approaches developed to date.

Methods And Results: This article describes a noninvasive method for evaluating the regional elasticity (the elastic modulus in the circumferential direction) of tissue surrounding atherosclerotic plaque in which a novel phased tracking method is applied to measure minute changes in thickness of each of the multiple layers of the arterial wall during one heartbeat.

Should increasing the dose or adding an AT1 receptor blocker follow a relatively low dose of ACE inhibitor initiated in acute myocardial infarction?

Objective: Based on currently available clinical evidence, we should use high-dose angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACE-I) for patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI), initiating it at incremental doses to avoid excessive hypotension. Recent animal studies with acute MI models failed to demonstrate the superiority of the combination therapy of ACE-I and angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) to high-dose ACE-I treatment with comparable blood pressure reductions, which however might be attributed to the initiation of the targeted doses from the beginning. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of increasing the dose of ACE-I with that of adding ARB following a relatively low dose of ACE-I on the survival and left ventricular (LV) remodeling after MI.

Epithelial-myoepithelial carcinoma of the parotid gland.

We report a rare case of epithelial-myoepithelial carcinoma (EMC) of the parotid gland. A 70-year-old man presented with a 4-months-history of right-sided subauricular swelling. Computed tomographic scans revealed a well-defined mass with cystic lesion, measuring about 40 mm in diameter, in the right parotid gland.

Prevalence of drug-resistance-associated mutations in antiretroviral drug-naive Zambians infected with subtype C HIV-1.

The ability of HIV-1 to evolve resistance to antiretroviral drugs leads to treatment failure. By nucleotide sequencing of HIV-1 subtype B isolates, amino acids responsible for drug resistance have been identified. Less information is available, however, on the extent and distribution of these amino acids in HIV-1 nonsubtype B viruses circulating mainly in developing countries.

A case of angioglioma composed of astrocytoma with a papillary growth pattern: immunohistochemical and ultrastructural studies.

We report a case of a large cystic astrocytoma associated with arteriovenous malformation in the right cerebral hemisphere of a 16-year-old boy. Neuroimaging showed large abnormal vessels with flow voids and arteriovenous shunt around the cystic lesion. Histologically, the cyst wall was formed by abnormal vasculature and clusters of glial cells forming a papillary growth pattern.

Effect of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibition on myocardial phosphoinositide metabolism visualised with 1-[1-11C]-butyryl-2-palmitoyl-rac-glycerol in myocardial infarction in the rat.

We recently reported that myocardial phosphoinositide (PI) metabolism can be visualised by 1-[1-11C]-butyryl-2-palmitoyl-rac-glycerol (11C-DAG) in rats with myocardial infarction (MI). Angiotensin II, the receptors for which are expressed predominantly in infarcted areas with active fibrogenesis rather than in non-infarcted regions, is involved in the upstream signalling systems of PI metabolism and plays an important role in the process of left ventricular (LV) remodelling after MI. We therefore hypothesised that the distribution of 11C-DAG after MI may be affected by the inhibition of angiotensin converting enzyme, which is one of the most important factors in the development of LV remodelling after MI.

A case of solitary fibrous tumor of the parotid gland: review of the literatures.

We report a rare case of solitary fibrous tumor of the parotid gland. A 47-year-old woman presented with a 3-year-history of left-sided subauricular swelling. Computed tomographic scans and magnetic resonance images revealed a well-defined and dumbbell-shaped mass, measuring about 30 mm in its greatest dimension, in the left parotid gland.

Anaplastic ganglioglioma with sarcomatous component: an immunohistochemical study and molecular analysis of p53 tumor suppressor gene.

The present case report describes a case of ganglioglioma with a distinct sarcomatous component in the left temporal lobe of a 59-year-old Japanese man. Neoplastic neuroglial tissue contained both benign and anaplastic glial components with a MIB-1 labeling index of 0.1% and 12.